


Club House Rules

by Cheshyr



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Insecure Bucky, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Super super light Steve/Bucky, Team Bonding, barely there really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-28
Updated: 2014-05-28
Packaged: 2018-01-26 23:11:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1705964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cheshyr/pseuds/Cheshyr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky, deprogrammed and living in Stark's Tower, doesn't feel like he belongs with the Avengers, so they set out to prove him wrong. After all, he's got more in common with them then he thinks...</p><p>A post-Winter Solider team bonding fic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Club House Rules

**Author's Note:**

> Characters from the comics (that haven't been introduced in the cinematic universe yet) are mentioned, but don't actually appear, so don't worry if you've only seen the movies. :)

“Sergeant Barnes, Captain Rogers wishes to inform you that dinner will be served shortly.”

Bucky flinched. It had nothing to do with JARVIS, who had been a great help to Bucky since his arrival in the Tower several weeks earlier. It had more to do with Steve’s never ending attempts to incorporate Bucky into the team. Lowering the remote, abandoning his attempt at finding something adequately distracting on television, he let his hands fall limply on his crossed legs.

“Thank you, JARVIS, but please let him know I’m… not hungry.”

There was a pause before JARVIS spoke again. “He is being rather persistent. Would you like to maintain your room lockdown protocols? “

“Yes, please.” Bucky sighed. The AI had been reluctant (or as reluctant as a computer could be, which was far more that Bucky had expected) when the soldier had requested his room to be put on lockdown whenever he was in the room. Which was most of the time. Stark had sent him an email informing him that the lockdown included an override if Barnes was seriously injured. He knew he was still on an informal suicide watch, but he appreciated that Stark kept him in the loop. 

“Captain Rogers has left, but he asked that I inform you that, and I quote, ‘You cannot live in this room forever and your mini fridge can only hold so much’.”

That actually managed to pull a laugh from Bucky, the sound hoarse and grating against his throat. He was out of practice. 

“Yeah, understood.” In his defense, he _did_ leave his room almost every day. Well, night. It was routine by now for Bucky to wake in the dark gasping for breath, dripping with sweat and heart beating hard against his ribs. Almost on autopilot he would find himself standing in front of Steve’s door, hand frozen an inch away from knocking against the wood. It was around that time that he turned away and instead went to the kitchen to restock his mini fridge, allowing himself another day of peace and solitude in the safety of his room.

“Sir, if I may inquire, is there a reason why you feel the need to evade your teammates? I am quite certain they are all concerned for your wellbeing and wish for your company.”

Bucky felt himself swallow thickly at the word “teammates”. 

“I’m not…” Well, it wasn’t exactly up to him, was it? “I _shouldn’t be_ on the team.” He revised. “I shouldn’t be here at all. The Avengers… They’re all s-such…” Bucky felt his cheeks grow warm. He hated his slow and stuttered speech. He couldn’t help it. The Winter Soldier didn’t talk much. 

Taking a deep breath, he continued, “Everyone here is a good person. A Hero. People like that shouldn’t associate with p-people like me. I just… don’t fit in.” He glanced around the lavish bedroom he’d been given but didn’t deserve. “I guess I don’t want to… subject them to me.” He finished sadly.

The only response was a soft static through the speakers like a gentle sigh.

~

Tony sat back in his seat, stretching his arms over his head, contemplating the video feed in front of him through the popping of his stiff joints. He would vehemently deny any accusations of “spying”, he simply liked to keep an eye out on the various crazies that had moved into his tower, specifically the newest member who refused to leave his room in the light of day.

In general, Tony drew the line of his observation at audio feeds, instead keeping a muted visual. Even he understood that the line of privacy shouldn’t be crossed too far for people he trusted. However, he had been curious as to Barnes’ latest excuse for skipping team dinner. 

Narrowing his eyes, Stark crossed his arms. So, Sargent Barnes didn’t think he belonged here, eh? Tony took personal offense to that. When Captain America approached him, nervously inquiring about whether Stark would allow his recently-freed-from-HYDRA best friend to stay with the Avengers, Tony had said yes. He had reviewed the files, looked the world-weary brunette up and down, and decided that he would be a fine addition to the Avengers and a welcome addition to the tower. Apparently Bucky disagreed, which meant that he was questioning Tony’s verdict and NOBODY questioned Tony Stark.

“JARVIS, tell the gang to bring their tablets to dinner. We’ll be discussing our next Team Building Activity…”  
~

It was early evening a few days later when Bucky hesitantly entered the Avengers common room, exhaling in relief when he saw that it was unoccupied. His steps gained no confidence, however, as he quietly made his way to the couch and sat down. It was his first attempt in weeks at leaving his room before the dead of night. As much as he tried to avoid it, even he knew he couldn’t escape the team forever. But still, he decided it would be better to take baby steps, venturing out after dinner was long finished to lessen the chance of running into anyone. He wore a thick black hoodie, the largest he could find with sleeves that covered flesh and metal hands. His jeans were plain, and looser than when he’d bought them, a side effect of continued avoidance of group meals, and he wore plain white socks and his hair pulled back into a ponytail. 

Bucky curled into himself as he pulled out a small battered copy of Pride and Prejudice. Since being freed from Hydra and now being allowed to have free time, he found he enjoyed reading books that where as far from his life as possible. Quiet books with calm scenery and gentle characters, no murder or war or torture. 

He had made it through four pages when Natasha and Clint walked in. He could tell they were intentionally making their steps louder, giving Bucky plenty of warning of their arrival. They were both dressed casually, Clint with grey cargo pants and a tank top, while Natasha wore a knee length cotton dress with her green jacket. It wasn’t until they were closer that Bucky noticed the thick binder Natasha carried under her arm. He kept his head down, expecting them to pass through and exit the door on the other side of the room. Which was why he nearly jumped out of his skin when they sat down on the couch, one on either side of him, close but still giving him some space.

Hawkeye reached into one of his pockets, pulling out what looked like an arrow and for a moment Bucky held his breath and thought _This is it, they’re going to take me out, finally finish the job_ , but his thoughts were paused when the arrow was revealed to have what looked like a small hammer at the end. 

Clearing his throat dramatically, Clint hit the gavel arrow on the coffee table in front of them twice. 

“Alright, now that we’re all here, I officially call this meeting of the Former Assassins Club to order.”

Bucky blinked once. Twice. He opened his mouth but no words came out. Clint either didn’t notice or chose to ignore him, continuing on, “Today we will be continuing our debate on whether number of kills or length in service has any correlation to how we manifest our obviously severely stunted emotions.”

Turning his head slowly, Bucky saw that Black Widow also had a look of confusion on her face, her brows furrowed.

“Clint, what are you talking about?” Bucky started to nod in agreement when the red-head continued, “I thought today was Brainwashed Club day?”

This time Bucky had to do a double-take. Natasha was looking at Clint almost sadly. “I wrote a discussion on various methods of deprograming, and brought a mock-up of new club fliers!” 

A small piece of paper was quickly pulled from her binder and thrust into Bucky’s hands. He felt like he was in some sort of dream as he looked down at the cartoon brain with sad eyes wearing a Band-Aid, with the words “Do YOU know what it’s like to be unmade?” beneath it. 

Meanwhile, Clint pulled out a notebook from another one of his pockets. “Oh, Nat, I’m so sorry. You must not have gotten the memo. Spider-Woman is out of town this week and asked to reschedule.”

At that moment, before Bucky could begin his gradual decent into the floor, Tony burst in, looked straight at Bucky and smiled widely.

“Barnes! There you are! Rhodey and I have been looking for you.” 

Whatever relief Bucky felt at the possibility of escaping the strange parallel universe he had fallen into was short lived when Tony walked towards them, 

“Sorry, Spy Kids, but I need to steal Sergeant Sad-eyes. He’s late for the Almost Killed My Best Friend club.”

“What.”

It wasn’t until three sets of eyes snapped to him that Bucky realized he’d spoken out loud, shrinking slowly into the back of the couch. Luckily (or unluckily, he was really confused right now) he was quickly ignored. 

Clint narrowed his eyes. “No way, Stark, you guys get him on Wednesdays.”

“Yeah, well, War Machine needs to make an appearance at some training conference or something, I don’t know, I wasn’t really paying attention, all I know is we got dibs on Barnes.”

“You _know_ all reschedules need to be posted on the community calendar!” A large paper calendar was swiftly unfolded and placed on the coffee table, the days covered in different colored sharpie scribblings that Barnes was certain would become words if he stared long enough. 

Stark reeled at the page, “What what what? I know for a FACT that I have designed at least four different calendar programs that are included in the nice sleek Stark tablets that I have given all of you so why is there so much paper in front of me now?” He gestured wildly at the calendar as well as the notebook still held in Clint’s hand.

Hawkeye pouted, “But this allows me to use glitter pens!” Several were quickly pulled from his pocket as example.

“GREETINGS, BRETHREN!” 

This time Bucky couldn’t stop the violent flinch, his body reeling back until, with nowhere else to go, he suddenly found himself pressed against Natasha. The red-head pressed back gently, her hand flying to clutch at her chest.

“Thor! What have we told you about using your indoor voice? Jeez, one of these days you’re going to give me a heart attack!”

Thor grinned bashfully, “My apologies. I simply noticed the gathering and wondering if I was late for the Club of Those Who Start Unnecessary Wars.”

“That is definitely not what we named it, but no, you guys meet on Saturday.”

“Hold up! Hold up!” At that moment, Rhodey and Sam Wilson, sauntered in. Sam held his arms up as Rhodey quietly explained to Tony that he came up because Tony was taking too long and had run into Sam along the way. “Thor’s here? Sweet, we can finally get started with War Atrocities Club.”

“Wait a second…” The entire group turned their heads as one as Steve entered from the other side of the room. “That can’t be right, otherwise I’m double-booked. I was just coming to Meet Tony and Rhodey.”

“Does no one read the calendar?” Clint cried, throwing his hands in the air.

Tony pointed accusingly, “Not when it’s written on that ancient thing!”

“It’s _paper_ , Tony.”

“Which is outdated and insulting in my presence.”

Bruce suddenly walked in from around the corner. “Hey guys, are we out of-“ He paused when he noticed the crowd in the room. Looking around, his eyes landed on the calendar in front of Bucky. He blinked in surprise.

“Oh, is today Government Weapon Club day?”

Natasha shook her head. “No, that’s Thursday. Wolverine’s on a mission today.”

“Dangerous Alter Ego Club?”

“That’s on hiatus. I think Jean Grey died.”

“Again? I swear, I can’t keep changing my schedule every time she decides to kick the bucket, am I right?” He looked expectantly at Bucky, who opened his mouth but could find nothing to say.

Tony suddenly raised his arm into the air, bouncing on his toes excitedly like a child. “Oh! Oh! Responsible for Innocent Deaths Club!”

“Stop trying to make that club happen, Stark!” Clint snapped, “It’s not going to happen! There are too many of us, we’re never going to be able to coordinate the schedules of the entirety of the superhero community.”

Pouting, Tony grumbled petulantly.

Cap stroked his chin thoughtfully, “Well, two clubs could meet on the same day as long as they were at different times, right? Like, in the morning and then afternoon or evening? We have more than seven clubs anyway.”

“Noooo!” Natasha whined, “Brainwashed club gets ice cream after our meeting! If another club meets after us and one of us has to stay, we wont be able to go out together!”

“Alright, everyone calm down.” Rhodey held his hands out in a peacekeeping gesture. “Let’s focus on one problem at a time. What club is scheduled to meet today?”

“Well,” Bruce leaned over to look at the calendar, “today is Monday, so it looks like there’s a triple booking with Former Assassins Club, War Atrocities Club, and the… Great Responsibility Club?”

“Damn it, has Spider-Man been messing with the Calendar again?” Clint picked up the page to study it more closely. 

Bruce shrugged. “I also know Ben Grimm has been vying for a Drove Away Loved Ones Club, so that would need to be fit in there somewhere…”

“Okay,” Sam chimed in, “So what I’m gathering though, is that at least two clubs with overlapping members were scheduled to meet today.” He glanced down at his watch, “It’s too late now to have both, so which wants to postpone?”

It seemed like everyone began to talk at once, each trying to defend why their club should be meeting. Bucky just glanced around, eyes wide as the heroes bickered around him. The wheels in his head were turning, slowly piecing the puzzle together.

Meanwhile, Clint quickly scribbled something onto the calendar before lifting his head to shout, “HEY!” effectively silencing the crowd.

“You’re all wrong. Today is actually the meeting of the Shot Nick Fury and Lived Club, Ai-OOOOOOOOh!”

Clint turned to Bucky, grinning widely with his hand raised expectantly for a high five. Bucky stared back, mouth agape. There was a beat of silence. Then another. Until finally, before he could stop himself, before he could overthink, question whether it was something he was allowed to do, he burst out laughing. 

It hurt. It hurt like resetting a bone, like cauterizing a wound. It hurt like finally being able to stretch after being boxed in for far too long. He doubled over, he gripped his stomach, his eyes watered.

Patting his back, Clint cheered. “Aw Yis, pay up fools! I told you that’d be the one to get him!”

The rest of the group was laughing and exchanging high fives, a few wandering over to slap crumpled dollars into Hawkeye’s outstretched hand. Thor threw an arm around Sam’s shoulders, pulling him in for a half hug that he did not notice was half crushing the smaller man. “This has been a successful evening on bonding and camaraderie! We should celebrate with much mead and song!”

“I’m only okay with one of those, big guy, and please don’t break the Falcon.” Tony laughed as Thor released his grip. 

Eventually, Bucky managed to catch his breath. “Okay, okay. I think I get it. I’ll probably still need reminding, but… I get it.”

“Hey, that’s all we need.” Bruce smiled warmly and patted his shoulder.

Sam leaned against the wall, “We know these things don’t go away in a day, but as long as you get the general idea, we’ll call it a success.”

Bucky laughed and nodded. Steve looked like he was about to say something as well when Phil Coulson appeared in the doorway with a few files in hand. He looked around questioningly at the crowd before shaking his head in a ‘not gonna ask’ kind of way. Finally, he turned to look at Bucky.

“Ah, Sargent Barnes. I’ve been looking for you. I need to go over a few forms if you don’t mind coming with me for a bit.”

Nodding, Bucky moved to get up, when Tony started snickering.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize the In Love with Captain America Club met tonight.”

Coulson managed to simply raise an eyebrow, while several knowing eyes were suddenly pinned on Bucky, who was rapidly turning pink along with Steve.

“Wha-what are you…” Steve stuttered, trying to laugh it off even as he was faced with a room full of rolled eyes.

“Come on, fellas,” Natasha announced as she closed her binder and stood from the couch. She linked arms with Agent Coulson and gestured the rest to follow. “Let’s leave the Oblivious Lovebirds Club to their meeting. Ice cream’s on me!” 

The group quickly filed out, several giving Bucky pats and thumbs up, while Phil let him know they would speak in the morning as the matter wasn’t important. Soon, all that was left was Steve standing self-consciously in the middle of the room as Bucky hid his face in his hands and sunk further into the coach.

After a moment of awkward silence, Bucky finally sighed and dropped his hands. “I don’t… really know what I’m supposed to do now…”

Steve laughed, moving to sit next to his best friend. He placed his arm around his shoulders and smiled at him.

“Join the club, punk.”

~

EPILOGUE

The sun had fallen, and the Avengers had said their goodnights, each going to their separate rooms. Steve had gently invited Bucky into his room, “Just to sleep” he had said, blushing. Bucky had laughed, but actually been relieved. Settling into bed, feeling the warmth radiating from Steve’s body, Bucky closed his eyes and sighed. He felt like he might be able to sleep through the night for the first time since he could remember.

That is, until a flash of green light had them both bolting up right.

Loki smirked, his hands on his hips. “Sorry to disturb you, but Sargent Barnes is late for the Sexy Villains Club.”

Steve blinked slowly. After a moment though, Bucky shook his head to clear the confused fog and managed to find his voice.

“Wait, no. What? NO.” His covered his face with his hands as Steve pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Stop spying on our team calendar, Loki!” Steve chimed in, as the two of them fell back onto the mattress in exasperation.

Still standing before the bed, Loki’s face fell, his arms falling to his side.

“Oh… well, um….” He scratched the back of his head. “Do you want to reschedu-“

“GET OUT!” 

Letting out a huff, Loki crossed his arms petulantly. “Fine. You’re not that sexy anyway.” And with that, he vanished.

Sighing in relief, the two Avengers shifted to settle into bed again. 

That is, until a few minutes later when Loki’s words finally registered with Bucky and he bolted up once more.

“Hey, wait a second…!”

**Author's Note:**

> SORRY I'M NOT SORRY ABOUT THE EPILOGUE.


End file.
